How I Turned 20 Years Of Marketing Experience Into A $1M Business

Alison Murdock

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Published: February 29th, 2024

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Alison Murdock

Founder, Trusted CMO

$75K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Trusted CMO

trustedcmo.com

from San Francisco, CA, USA

started February 2020

$75,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

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Asana

sales

Salesforce

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HubSpot’s for...

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Hubspot

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Zoom

Discover what books Alison recommends to grow your business!

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hi, my name is Alison Murdock and the founder and chief marketer of Trusted CMO. Trusted CMO is a boutique marketing consulting firm serving B2B venture-backed startups and growth-stage companies with foundational and fractional marketing services.

We’ve been in business for 4 years and have grown at least 50% yearly via word of mouth from investors, founders, and other marketing leaders.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I have been a CMO and marketing leader for over 20 years in Silicon Valley and Europe. I have never worked for a company larger than 500 people, and Trusted CMO is my fourth business. Much of my career has been working at startups – mainly launching the company and building a go-to-market team that could scale and drive revenues.

I quit my last full-time CMO gig because I was burning out. Almost every company I had worked at (except 6sense, a stellar GTM standout even in the early days) started marketing too late: no strategy, people, budget, etc. And lots of hungry and frustrated salespeople who needed air cover and market development.

I enjoyed my four-month break because I had time to think and ask myself these questions:

What am I good at?
What do I dislike?
What do I want to work to be like?
Which companies, industry sectors, and people get me excited to work every day?
What is a huge problem that I have solved before but still exists?

All the answers came to me quickly.

I am good at building and making small companies seem much bigger than they are.
Company politics, lack of resources, being on the corporate hamster wheel, solving the same problems repeatedly.
I want my work to be varied and worth doing, and I want to work with smart, driven people.
I love B2B startups and working with VCs looking to fund companies that will change how interact and work together.
Everyone is late to marketing and most founders and CEOs don’t know what good looks like.

I landed on the idea of starting a firm that could be a marketing team before there was one and also support a marketing function when needed. I knew this was the right move when I got the domain trustedcmo.com for about $10.

Second, I started this business just as the world was shutting down in 2020. Immediately, and with very little investment other than my time and network, I landed 4 clients with a couple of emails. And then the referrals started coming in.

You can own your work life. Being a business owner is hard, but at least you get to decide who you want to work with and when.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

As a service business, building a “product” is pretty easy, but you need to have a solid value proposition, be clear on the problem you're solving, and how you are different or better than other offerings.

One of the things we do differently from other consulting firms is build expert, scalable teams. As a boutique firm, we have a vetted network of providers that can do anything for B2B companies—from design to revenue operations and everything in between. We have cultivated and curated this “syndicate” for the last 4+ years.

The benefit of this approach is that our clients see what good looks like because we bring the best people in. If it doesn’t work, or the chemistry isn’t right, we have a deep bench to draw from.

Once we were clear on those two ideas, we built a website in a day. It was pretty basic, but people loved the copy.

Describe the process of launching the business.

As a solo founder, I found that getting started was easier once I decided to stop over-planning. Instead, I spent time developing a business plan and deciding what services I’d launch with and what my ideal customer looked like. Next, I worked with a friend to design a basic logo and color scheme and then built a simple site on Squarespace. I paid the most attention to the copy. And honestly, my greatest surprise was how people loved the copy. The site was much more basic than anything I had built in my past career, but it worked.

Next, I reached out to everyone I thought could give me good feedback and referrals. That worked. One of my contacts sent me four leads, and three out of four became my first clients! And those clients, in turn, referred me to others and also their investors who had portfolio companies needing help.

Fundraising was not something I needed to do because the beauty of a services business is that you can earn fees right off the bat. However, I soon learned that as you grow, you need to consider how to scale and how to fund that. So I brought on some operational help (admin, freelance design and writing, and other like-minded solopreneurs and small agencies) to help when needed.

I loved having others to work with and contribute, and soon we realized that one of our greatest advantages was our expert marketing network that could deliver end-to-end, full-funnel marketing to small companies who did not have these resources.

But not everything was a bed of roses. Much of my building process took place during the pandemic, which sometimes helped me because I got a few hours from marketing experts who had to stop working to stay home with children or family members. A worldwide tragedy with a sliver of a silver lining.

On a personal note, I went through a shocking and dreadful divorce. There were days when I was incapable of working, and I was so extraordinarily thankful for the people who supported the company—from admin to agencies. I survived, and so did the company.

Show more than tell. Spend less time talking and selling, than trying to show your prospective clients what you can do for them.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Since launch, we have grown very quickly and have taken on many customers. We have grown 50%+ each year.

We have been very fortunate that the business has come to us through VC, CEO, and CMO referrals. Part of the reason we have been fortunate with referrals is that there is such a high demand for marketing help at the early stages. Not just strategy but tactics and execution.

The work needs to get done, and we’re known for doing it. The second reason is that we’ve had the benefit of working with so many startups now that companies trust our advice and know that we’re coming with experience.

The only promotion we do is sharing ideas and musings on our blog and LinkedIn.

When I started the company, I wanted to learn who our ideal customer would be and said “yes” to everything. That approach began to wear us down. We soon learned to be more discerning about who we could help and who we couldn’t.

Fortunately, we have had several “boomerang” clients who have come back to us when they need something new. We have tried to make it easy for clients to engage with us and get help when they need it versus ball-and-chaining them into being our clients for years. This approach gives us the opportunity to take on new business, gain experience in different industries, and even come up with offerings that we realize everyone needs.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We are a small, but profitable company. We hit a million in 2023 and are on track to grow 50% more in 2024. We have 4 full-time employees and several small agencies and freelancers that we bring in as needed. Our boutique model allows us to take on new clients whom we know we can help with GTM processes and operations while gaining experience in different industries,

We are starting to see new opportunities to expand our mission through educational offerings and managed services that we’re seeing nearly every client need. These services include:

Workshops with experts who help train teams on a specific aspect of marketing. Think advisory with hands-on guidance.
Services that need attention but don’t always have an internal owner: SEO, PPC, data, and reporting.
Ongoing advisory to help build a high-performing marketing team and GTM leadership.

I am a big fan of small steps and experimentation when I see a need.

With this approach, we have started new services that are solid and repeatable. And tested others that were too hard or not worthwhile given the time required and risk.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I have worked at numerous startups and sometimes felt that I was running a marathon without a finish line. Being a solo founder with employees and many startup clients who are also running that long race is even harder. There are wonderful experiences, most often, but also hard lessons. Here are some of those:

What worked:

Starting small and tapping into my network. I was utterly surprised at the response I got when asked!

Being a good boss, mentor, and work partner to your team. I am tough but fair and believe people genuinely care about work and want to do their best.

Being straight with clients and realistic even if the news is not good. This was a huge learning experience for me – CEOs are pressured to grow from investors. When they ask you to do something you think is wrong, you must inform them and provide data.

Focusing on tactics more than just strategic advice. As a full-time startup marketer myself, I had so few resources to get things done. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but action is even more important. And this positioning has turned out to be our biggest differentiator in a world of fractional professionals.

Being responsive and open to feedback and change. We are small, so being responsive is not so hard. But when a client is disgruntled, seek to understand why and then make the change or decision. Don’t let bad feelings linger.

What I learned the hard way:

I suck at some things. I love the idea of very streamlined processes – take the mental heavy lifting out of the equation. But, I struggle to stick with the plan unless I follow someone else’s guidelines. Now I do!

Clients want to know you are available whenever they need you. If you are selling your services, you are also selling yourself. But to deliver well, you’ll need help. I learned that it’s important to help clients build trust with your team and know things can get done without you.

Communication is paramount. If things start to feel weird—with clients or team members—there’s probably an unspoken issue. Best to not assume and ask a question. Over-communicate progress, highlights, and low lights.

Sometimes your best-laid plans… I have a lot of ideas about what would help startups, and recruiting was a regrettable one. Between market shifts and the sheer effort of looking for a needle in a haystack, it wasn’t worth it. Instead, we now consult on best fit, interview candidates, and help train. Way better.

Some people are jerks; you don’t have to take the bait. It’s very rare that we encounter jerks in the work that we do since our clients are pretty heavily vetted. But it happens, and it might not be the client. It might be an investor who has some grudge against marketers or wants to replace us with their friend. When I find someone talking down to me or trying to undercut me, I try to be gracious and avoid engaging in a way that is discourteous. Just know that people sink their own ships, so you don’t have to!

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

As marketers, we use numerous tools ourselves or on behalf of our clients. We’re always vetting new SaaS offerings and testing them. Here are some of the most common tools:

HubSpot (CRM and marketing automation)
Salesforce (CRM only)
6sense
ZoomInfo
LeanData
SalesLoft or Outreach
Qualified or Drift
Asana
Google Suite
Zoom
Social: Mostly LinkedIn
Ads: Google or LinkedIn
Video: PlayPlay
Webinars/Virtual events: Goldcast
AI: ChatGPT, Writer, Jasper

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

Lately, I have been snacking on other marketers’ LinkedIn posts, which are great for advice and commentary. I love Sharebird for all things product marketing and messaging.

Also, I browse Substack and Medium for ideas and information related to client business.

And of course, YouTube to solve any immediate problems. I’m not a huge fan of work-related podcasts or books, as it’s too much non-fiction, informational overload for me.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

I have listed a few things above, so this will be brief.

If you just got laid off, try your hand at freelancing. It’s a great way to start an entrepreneurial journey if that’s what you want.

You can own your work life. Being a business owner is hard, but at least you get to decide who you want to work with and when.

Spend time on your vision before you build a plan. It’s really important to articulate (even if it’s to yourself) why you want to start a company and the gap you are filling. That “founder story” is the linchpin of your company vision.

Build a plan. Whether you start by building a product before you build a business plan or the reverse, do it. It’s good to get ideas documented because it helps you focus on what’s possible with the resources you have.

Show more than tell. Spend less time talking and selling, than trying to show your prospective clients what you can do for them.

Don’t waste people’s time. Networking is the best thing you can do for your business, but don’t engage in “grabbing a coffee to chat” or picking someone’s brain without a specific ask. It’s annoying and discourteous.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

We are always looking for B2B marketing talent to be involved in our projects. We may not have work for you right away, but we want to know who you are. Reach out to us at here.